Reasonable Doubt
by dontwaitupxx
Summary: Sokka doesn't trust Jet and his followers. In the darkness of the night, Sokka is mistaken for Fire Nation.


Reasonable Doubt

An Avatar: The Last Airbender Fan Fiction

By: dontwaitupxx

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><p>Chapter One<p>

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><p>Sokka turned over onto his side, the full moon lightly shining in his face. He could hear Appa slightly snoring above the treetops, above the tree houses that were homes and refuges to the orphaned boys and girls. And that's exactly what they were – orphans. No parents around to take care of them or to teach them right from wrong. Children with no sense of direction, and looking up to the one person with the strength to take charge: Jet. The one person who was able to feed them and give them whatever they needed to survive and enjoy life. He was a Robin Hood of some sort: his actions were virtuous and noble on one hand, but not at the cost of stealing from others and of innocent old men.<p>

Yes, of innocent old men. Jet and his followers had robbed and attacked an innocent old man earlier that day. The man was Fire Nation, yes, but he was harmless and was just a man going about his day. The man had nothing on him, and had no way of attacking and harming anyone. Sokka came to understand that day that there were Fire Nation citizens living in colonies throughout the Earth Kingdom that wished no harm on anyone. Jet and his followers should have been fighting the Fire Nation Capitol and the Fire Nation's armies: not innocent old men. Sokka just wished that Jet could see the true enemy.

Jet had revealed a certain poisonous dagger that the old man was hiding – quite an impressive and expensive looking dagger for an old man from a simple colony to possess. Jet claimed that the old man had concealed it, and was a hired assassin to kill Jet, but the old man was frail, and Jet was a young man of sixteen. If the Fire Nation had really wanted Jet dead, they would have just burnt down the entire forest, not sent an old man to climb treetops.

Sokka moved onto his back, sighing. They had been staying at Jet's hideout for what had been no more than a day, and he knew that Jet and his followers were bad news. Aang and Katara refused to believe that Jet was bad news, and Katara had verbally attacked him, saying that Jet was a better leader and a better warrior than him. Coming from his sister, it was a blow to his pride, seeing as he had been basically single handedly defending their tribe from Fire Nation attacks. He wondered, though, if what she said held to be true. After all, the one time that their tribe was attacked, he was thrown off to the side like a ragdoll; unable to defend the people he loved. Jet though, was able to protect countless _children_, and was able to keep them hidden, suspended high among the trees and the birds. He was able to keep them fed and healthy, while his tribe back home was dwindling in numbers due to starvation and disease. He wondered if his tribe was better off without him.

Before he could think about it any longer, hushed whispers and light footsteps reached his ears, coming from outside their specific hut. The voices were travelling, rustling leaves in their wake and disappearing as they went down zip lines. Sokka quickly got up and inched the curtain open, furrowing his eyebrows as he saw silhouettes in the darkness disappear down the zip lines. Jet never said anything about any missions this late at night, and he was already suspicious of him and his intentions.

He quickly and quietly jumped onto the tree branch right next to their hut, and jumped onto the nearest zip line down to a lower branch, still a good twenty feet up in the air. He maneuvered from branch to branch, keeping himself hidden within the leaves and the shadows of the trees. He crouched down on a particularly thick branch, observing. From there, he saw a wagon, full with what looked like the blasting jelly from the Fire Nation camp they had attacked earlier. Something wasn't right. What would they possibly be using blasting jelly for so late in the night?

He jumped down, making his way on foot in the foliage behind them, keeping his distance and keeping care not to step on any thin twigs.

They were talking about pedestrian things – like the amount of game they got on the last hunting trip, or the look on the Fire Nation soldier's face when The Duke jumped on his back and started singing an Earth Kingdom hymn. There was nothing suspicious about what they were doing except the blasting jelly and time of night they were doing it in. Maybe they were taking it off to a storage unit. Sokka wouldn't argue that those barrels were probably way too heavy to put into the tree houses, much less to try and get up there.

After about fifteen minutes of following behind them, they stopped at the edge of a cliff, overlooking a small town, a ravine, and a dam, holding up a very large river. Sokka positioned himself behind a tree, halfway concealed to get a good look. Jet looked out over the cliff, a small smile on his face, before turning back towards his followers.

"Now listen," Jet began, "You're not to blow the dam until I give the signal. If the reservoir isn't full, the Fire Nation troops could survive."

The Duke was the first to speak up, jumping over the wagon, "But what about the people in the town? Won't they get whipped out too?"

Jet walked over to him and put a hand on The Duke's shoulder, "Look, Duke, that's the price of ridding this area of the Fire Nation," Jet turned towards Longshot, "Now don't blow the dam until I give the signal." Longshot nodded in approval, understanding.

Jet stepped back and gave a lopsided grin, until out of the corner of his eye, he saw the silhouette of an intruder. He stepped back, squinting, and Sokka made a move to reveal himself, to confront Jet and his followers. Jet's face gave a look of recognition, but then hardened again, and Jet clucked his tongue once and made a swipe-like gesture on his nose twice. Before Sokka could make himself known, he felt something hot and sharp impale him in the side, teetering him off balance and sending him to the ground.

All at once, everything began swirling together. Gasping, he looked to his side, and saw one of Longshot's arrows protruding out of his side. He saw red blood seeping into his blue Water Tribe clothing, turning it a purple color. The arrow in his side hurt more than any injury he had ever had, even more than when he broke his leg when he was ten. Looking down at the particular arrow, he saw clear liquid dripping off of the side of it, and knew instantly that he was poisoned.

Sokka dragged himself out by his arms, bringing himself fully into the dawning light. His ears were buzzing and he felt light headed. He felt betrayed; he knew that Jet and his followers were no good. He craned his neck up to look at his gang, and they all looked petrified.

Jet wasted no time, "Smellerbee, get one of those Fire Nation arrows out from the cart; Pipsqueak, hold Sokka down."

Pipsqueak reluctantly obeyed, holding down Sokka's struggling body with large hands, "Jet, what are we doing?" He seemed confused and frantic – needless to say: they all knew the potency of the poison that Longshot carried around.

"I didn't know it was him," Jet said, straight faced, "But we're going to cover our tracks." Jet knelt down next to Sokka's writhing body, and yanking it out without any precaution, without any preamble. The scream that came out of Sokka was loud and fiery, but Jet wasn't worried about anyone from camp hearing him: they were out fifteen minutes away from camp, and had the entire thick forest to capture the scream. There was no way Aang and Katara would have heard.

"You were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time," Jet said offhandedly. Even in Sokka's fevered state, he spit at Jet's face.

Jet whipped off the spit from his face, and in its absence, a scowl was present, "No one, not even Aang or Katara, is going to believe you," Jet said, grabbing the Fire Nation arrow from Smellerbee, "For all they will know, you ran into a Fire Nation troop, and you were just in the _wrong place_ at the _wrong time_."

With those words, he took the Fire Nation arrow and rammed it down into the hole where the arrow that Sokka was shot with used to be. Sokka's body seized up as he screamed; sweat dripping down his face in fevered tendrils. His body crumpled as his voice died out and he passed out, his head hitting the ground by Jet's feet. Jet looked up at his gang: they were all frozen where they were, staring back at him with disbelieving eyes. They knew that Jet did things that they didn't understand, and they knew that he had good reasons for why he did what he did, but none of them could fathom the extremity of Jet's actions thus far.

Jet stood up and faced them all, a cold look washing over his face, "It goes without saying that no one is to ever speak of this to anyone ever again. There will be fatal consequences to anyone who does. You will be considered a traitor, and will be treated as such."

"But Jet," it was Longshot who spoke, his small, unused voice piercing the silence, "What will we do when he wakes up? He'll tell Katara and Aang."

"If he wakes up," Jet corrected, "We're leaving him here, and if he isn't found by nightfall, the frost of the night will finish off whatever the poison hasn't already. If he's found, we blame the Fire Nation. The poison could have made him delusional. We already have both the Avatar and Katara on our side. They'll never believe him."

"So… we are just supposed to leave him to die?" Smellerbee asked.

"Are you questioning my authority?" Jet asked, swinging his hook-swords into an en guarde position, "Remind yourself of whom you are talking to. Remind yourself that the Avatar is an all powerful bender that could and will kill you if he finds out that you were behind this."

"Me?" Smellerbee protested, "I had nothing to do with this! I didn't shoot Sokka!"

"But you gave me the Fire Nation arrow," Jet whipped his hook-swords down, back to his sides, "Let none of you think that one of you is less responsible than another. You are all responsible, and if I go down, you go down with me, "Jet's eyes narrowed, "Do I make myself clear?"

A few mumbled affirmations were given among them, and Jet put away his hook-swords. He looked down at the fallen Water Tribe warrior, whose face had paled considerably due to the poison and loss of blood. A small pool of blood lay in front of him from when the arrows were switched out, and the rag-tag arrow that Longshot had used initially was laid next to his shivering body. He picked up the arrow and gave it to Smellerbee, "Break this into pieces and then throw it over the ledge and into the ravine. Pipsqueak, throw Sokka into the bushes. It's time to break up this mirth, friends, and get to work. Smellerbee and Pipsqueak, get lost. Go on a walk, and don't come back until sundown."

"But that's hours from now!" Smellerbee protested.

Jet snapped and spun around, "Do you think I care? Look – we have to have an alibi for Sokka, and as far as I'm concerned, the best way to make sure that his sister and the Avatar don't find out is if you two say that you are on a hunting trip with Sokka. Come back at nightfall and say that he wandered off and didn't return: that should give us enough time. By then the dam will be blown, the Fire Nation troops rid from the town, and Sokka will be dead, or sick enough that death will be inevitable. We have to cover our tracks, and if you're not with me, you're against me, and will be considered a traitor… Do _not _make me blow you up with that dam."

With that, the group fell silent and moved about, doing as they were told. A moan escaped Sokka's lips as he was dropped into a bush. Jet smirked and walked over, noticing how Sokka's eyes had opened slightly.

"None of this would have ever happened if you hadn't challenged my authority," Jet shrugged.

Sokka's teeth were gritted, "You knew it was me. You saw me, and yet you still shot me."

Jet grinned, "Observant. I made a decision and I went with it. Sometimes, Sokka, you just got to trust your instinct if you want to survive in this world… and something tells me that you're not."

Jet landed a blow in Sokka's side, right near where the Fire Nation arrow was protruding. Sokka let out another yell of pain, and then his body went slack for the second time that day.

Jet and Sokka were similar in many ways. Both were non-benders, and both had to fight in order to survive. It was survival of the fittest, really. And there could only be one leader.

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><p>-End of Chapter One-<p>

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><p>AN: I haven't wrote for Avatar in over six years. Read my other story, <span>Never Give Up Without A Fight<span>, and tell me how this one fares in comparison!


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